7 Ways to Boost Your Career as a Beginner Photographer

As a beginner photographer, you have a long journey ahead of you. But don’t let this scare you. There are many opportunities for you to jumpstart your career and start climbing the corporate ladder. With the growing popularity of digital media, this process is even more straightforward.

If you don’t know where to start, we have created an easy-to-follow guide. Let’s go through 7 ways to boost your career as a beginner photographer.

Create a Good Portfolio
Creating a good portfolio is a very good starting point for a beginner. Since you are going to use this portfolio to apply for jobs and to attract more clients, you will have to clearly define its scope. Simply answer the following question. What is the photography niche you want to master? After that, you can pack your gear and start shooting.

The purpose of your portfolio is to show your future clients and potential employers certain skills and techniques that you’ve mastered. Take your audience into consideration as well.

What is your goal here? Do you want to impress them? Surprise them? Let this be the main theme of your portfolio. This will give it structure and consistency.

Join Competitions
Participating in photography competitions is good for several reasons:

* You get to display your work to major audiences
* It will help you build your contact list
* You will start making a name in the digital realm
* You will learn a lot from comments and suggestions
* You will have fun and become eligible for prizes

Participating in legacy competitions can only get you so far. If you really want to boost your career, you need more than a photo competition. By taking part in famous competitions, you will be able to compete against both your peers and experienced colleagues. Besides, according to this article, cool online competitions can help you win big money.
Keep Networking and Don’t Burn Bridges
Networking is a key ingredient here. Face it, you’ve chosen a career that puts you in a position to work with people. Why not put two important things together and do them at the same time – building a contact list and learning photography.

You are a beginner. This means that, at the moment, networking events can benefit all aspects of your career. As you progress, a younger colleague might ask you for help and advice. This can also happen to your peers who are not advancing as rapidly as you.

Don’t burn bridges. Help them out. All those professional relationships that you nurture today can only bring you benefits in the future.
Collaborate
Learning photography and boosting your career through collaboration is perfectly viable. Identify photographers in your niche that you would like to collaborate with and reach out to them. Make sure to introduce yourself, attach your portfolio, and follow with a suggestion to collaborate.

Why is this good? Well, first you will be in a position to build strong relationships with photographers who already have clients. And secondly, collaborating will put you in a position to learn and practice.

Don’t be afraid to ask some of the following questions: “Why choose this camera setting?”, “How did you set up the lightning?”, “Which software do you use for post-processing?”, “Can you teach me how to capture compositions like you do?”. You get our point.
Start Blogging
Establishing a name for yourself online is very important. With more and more people searching for photography services via search engines, not having an online presence is a huge disadvantage. Start building your digital presence by creating a website and starting your own blog. Don’t worry, WordPress managed hosting will help you get your website up and running in a couple of minutes.

What to write about? You can use the website to showcase your work and explain the process you went through to capture those images. You can also write equipment guides, photography tips and tricks, and so on. The options are limitless.

Ask for Reviews
Reviews of your work are vital for your progress. They can help you learn a lot about your services and your skills. They can help you identify your weaknesses so that you can work on them. Furthermore, if you manage to get your clients to leave reviews on your website, you will increase the odds of landing your next gig, since both people and search engines trust businesses with great online reviews.
Do Social Media
Social media should the crown jewel to your online efforts. You should use it to connect with colleagues, advertise to clients, showcase your work, but also leverage it to promote your blog and increase your audience. Here is a great guide that you can follow.

There you have it – 7 ways to boost your career as a beginner photographer. Please keep in mind that you can continue pursuing these strategies even when you become an established professional in your niche.